Final Information to Making a Garment Spec Sheet – advantage + vice If you recognize the attire you need to make, have discovered materials you need to use, and are about to begin speaking to a manufacturing facility about

Final Information to Making a Garment Spec Sheet – advantage + vice

Last Updated: August 26, 2025By Melanie DiSalvo

If you recognize the attire you need to make, have discovered materials you need to use, and are about to begin speaking to a manufacturing facility about making samples and seeing your clothes in actual life – you will want a garment spec sheet.

A garment spec sheet is sort of a blueprint that helps you talk your design idea to your producer to allow them to make it precisely as you envision it (and no, it’s not a tech pack). With an excellent spec sheet anybody wherever on the planet ought to be capable of make your garment.

I’m certain you might have heard horror tales from small manufacturers working with factories and never getting the designs they wished. However, this little sheet will assist restrict misunderstandings between you and your producer, clarify high quality management requirements, and assist create patterns faster.

Whereas many manufacturers rent knowledgeable to make their garment spec sheets, I’ll present you how you can DIY it your self utilizing a t-shirt for example.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

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TECH PACK VS GARMENT SPEC SHEET

Earlier than we start, to know how a garment specification sheet works, you must know what a tech pack is.

A tech pack is a whole set of pointers a designer makes for the producer to assemble the garment. Mainly, it’s just like the automotive guide inside your glove field – it contains every thing from cloth swatches and costing to the place labels must be sewn. Tech packs vary from 6-12 pages of pure garment data.

However, what’s a garment specification sheet? A garment spec sheet is a web page inside your tech pack devoted solely to garment measurements and stitching directions.

A spec sheet will inform your manufacturing facility each level of measure (POMs) in your garment and provides them directions on how you can grade. If you happen to don’t know, grading is the method of taking a sample and making it into a bigger or smaller measurement. Lastly, a trend spec sheet will let your manufacturing facility know the way removed from perfection they will stray (as a result of nobody is ideal). Extra on that later.

Merely put, a tech pack is your general pointers for the producer, and a spec sheet is the nitty gritty measurement and development particulars inside it.

WHY ARE GARMENT SPEC SHEETS IMPORTANT?

fashion spec sheet

A garment specification sheet is utilized in each stage of growth and manufacturing – from the primary match pattern to ultimate approval and the standard assurance inspection earlier than the order ships. It’s a significant software that will help you guarantee your garment suits the way you need it to.

It is usually an insurance coverage coverage for you and the producer in case errors or misunderstandings occur.

The factor is, nobody ever will get a garment excellent on the primary strive.

That tremendous large bell sleeve you thought you wished? Possibly you determine it must be somewhat smaller. On this case, you’ll revise your garment spec sheet to the brand new measurements after seeing the sleeve in a pattern. The manufacturing facility would then make a brand new pattern with the revised sleeves.

Now, think about you open your field of 100 manufacturing items, and there are these large sleeves you thought you removed. You may return to your spec sheet and present the manufacturing facility your adjustments and whenever you made them.

If it’s their mistake, and they’re an excellent manufacturing facility, they’ll assist appropriate it for you.

So, you see. With out the spec sheet as a paper path, you wouldn’t have a case.

HOW TO CREATE GARMENT SPECS

Listed below are 10 issues each spec sheet will need to have.

ONE: DESCRIPTION

That is only a transient description of the garment on the high of your spec sheet.

So, you don’t have to get artistic. If it’s a t-shirt, name it a ‘T-Shirt’. It’s that easy!

TWO: STYLE NUMBERS

Fashion numbers are a vital approach to preserve monitor of your clothes – significantly for those who’re engaged on a number of completely different types directly. Some manufacturers will work on a whole bunch of types a season so there must be a simple approach to preserve monitor of all of them.

You need to create a constant fashion numbering system to maintain it straight. Creating a mode quantity may very well be so simple as numbering every fashion from 1 to nonetheless many you’re making. Or, you could possibly go extra advanced.

Your fashion quantity can embody:

Season and 12 months (Spring 2023)
Merchandise quantity (01, 02, 03 and many others.)
Whether or not it’s a high, backside or gown (T, B, D)
Color (W for white, BL for black and many others.)

The fashion quantity on your white t-shirt can be SP2301TW (spring 2023, fashion 1, high, white). Or, if we need to preserve it easy, we may name it 001.

THREE: PRODUCT CATEGORY

The class mentions who the garment is meant for. E.g., males, girls, unisex, children, and many others.

FOUR: COLLECTION

Be sure that to record your garment’s season. In case your t-shirt belongs to the spring/summer season 2023 season, you’ll write SS-23.

FIVE: COMPANY INFORMATION

Each web page in your spec sheet (and tech pack, for that matter) ought to have all of your contact particulars.

It’s essential to incorporate them on each web page as a result of factories are chaotic and messy. Papers get separated and misplaced on a regular basis. So, if web page 2 will get ripped out and finally ends up on the ground (which, consider me, occurs on a regular basis), anybody on the manufacturing facility will know how you can get that web page the place it belongs (learn, not the rubbish).

Be sure that to incorporate on each single web page:

Your organization title and brand

The brand helps folks rapidly see what model they’re engaged on.

Contact particulars (electronic mail, tackle, telephone quantity)

Quick access to this information helps the manufacturing facility higher talk with you.

Season and supply date

This manner, a manufacturing facility may be sure they’re utilizing this season’s set of garment directions and never final 12 months’s. And it’ll remind them of timelines, encouraging them to fulfill the deadline.

SIX: GARMENT DIAGRAMS AND TECHNICAL SKETCHES

Embody a back and front view diagram of your garment however preserve it easy. This isn’t the time to get artistic with avant-garde sketches! You don’t even have to know how you can use adobe illustrator or one other CAD program. A easy sketch with a pencil will do.

Sticking to a easy black-and-white technical drawing is greatest.

You may also need to embody close-up diagrams for advanced particulars equivalent to pockets, stitching, and linings.

As soon as the technical drawings are made, you will want to label all of the factors of measurement in your diagrams.

For instance, for those who had been making a t-shirt, line A may characterize how large the neck opening must be, whereas measurement B reveals the sleeve opening.

This diagram is a visible illustration of all of the numbers and measurements you’ll fill out in Excel – which we are going to get to in only one minute.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PICTURES IN A GARMENT SPEC SHEET

Photos make everybody’s life simpler. The reality is many individuals working in factories would not have the very best studying and writing expertise, so a picture can forestall a mistake earlier than it occurs.

The opposite factor is, as loopy because it sounds, everybody measures clothes somewhat otherwise. A bodily drawing that reveals how every level ought to measure cuts down on errors.

SEVEN: MEASUREMENT EXCEL

A measurement sheet enhances the garment diagram. Earlier I discussed all these factors of measure labeled within the sketch have to be crammed out in Excel with precisely what number of inches or centimeters they need to be. These values will assist your manufacturing facility create a sample per the suit your need.

All POMs (factors of measure) you’ve recognized and labeled on the drawing have to be mirrored within the measurement sheet.

Now that you just perceive POMs, again to the t-shirt, the POM you’ve marked as A must be listed in your sheet with a callout annotation telling the producer precisely what number of inches or centimeters it’s.

The Excel will look one thing like this:

CODE	NAME	S	M	L
A	Neckline circumference	22	24	26

EIGHT: CONSTRUCTION GUIDELINES AND STITCHING DETAILS

These specs element what varieties of stitches you need to use in your garment and the varieties of equipment that may be wanted.

Some clothes require particular seams, which depend on hard-to-find stitching machines – it’s essential to record this out to make sure the manufacturing facility has the correct gear to make your trend designs.

You must also embody extra technical particulars like thread sizes, sew per inch and seam types.

For instance, in our t-shirt, we would use plain seams and double-stitched seams.

It’s possible you’ll discover it useful to incorporate a seam diagram (also called a seam indicator line) to indicate the manufacturing facility precisely what you need. As I stated, footage are a should for holding communication clear and stopping errors from occurring.

NINE: DESIGN EMBELLISHMENTS

Make an observation of any equipment or any additional particulars your garment has, equivalent to:

Embroidery
Fringes
Fastenings
Print directions

Again to our t-shirt instance. Let’s say I need a massive advantage + vice brand on the middle entrance chest. On this part, I’ll embody precisely how massive the emblem must be and the place it is going to be positioned on the shirt.

TEN: ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

When you have any extra data that’s useful to the producers, add it right here. Don’t be shy; the extra information (particularly photos), the higher with a garment spec sheet.

FIGURING OUT THE ACTUAL GARMENT MEASUREMENTS

The trickiest a part of the garment spec sheet is understanding the precise factors of measurement.

In massive trend corporations, a whole crew is dedicated to this job. They’re known as the tech crew. All they do is create garment spec sheets and generally paper patterns. To make clear, they don’t contact any of the opposite sections of a tech pack template (that will be the designer’s job) – they solely work on the specs.

Each garment ought to have wherever from 12-30 completely different factors of measure.

However, it will get much more sophisticated. Each sort of garment has its personal set of factors of measure. So the factors of measure on a t-shirt may not be the identical as a tank high, which could not be the identical as a shirt.

I promised you could possibly DIY this – and you may. Listed below are the essential POMs you need to have. Once more, like every thing else, the extra particulars you may give, the higher – however together with these 9 provides you with an excellent head begin to the right garment:

Neck width
Neck depth
Shoulder width
Armhole opening at armpit
Armhole opening on the backside of sleeve
Sleeve size
Whole shirt size
Width of blouse beneath the armpit
Width of the shirt on the backside hem

HOW DO I FIND THE ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS?

Until you determine to enroll in a months-long course on garment development and sample making, you’ll by no means be capable of determine that out by yourself.

You don’t have to.

Exit and purchase a garment you just like the match of, place it flat on a desk, and replica their measurements. It’s that easy!

DON’T FORGET THE TOLERANCE

Have you ever ever tried on one pair of pants in a retailer and had them really feel somewhat too tight, after which tried on a unique pair in the identical measurement once more…all of a sudden, they felt somewhat extra comfy?

You’re not loopy.

That’s tolerance.

Garments are handmade by folks, and other people aren’t excellent. So, in manufacturing, it’s unlikely that each single garment would be the identical.

It’s business customary to permit producers to have small variations to the measurement numbers on the spec sheet. This is called tolerance.

Distinguished by -/+ columns in your measurement sheet, tolerance is the quantity over or beneath the spec sizes that permits the garment to go high quality management.

GARMENT SPEC SHEET PRO TIP

Not all tolerances are the identical. A sleeve may need a tolerance of ⅛” whereas the physique may need a tolerance of ½”.

Quick trend corporations normally have a bigger tolerance as a result of pace and effectivity are price greater than accuracy.

Usually, once I labored in quick trend, we had a tolerance of ½”. I as soon as labored with a model that wished a 1/16” tolerance (additionally they wished ridiculously low costs). The manufacturing facility dumped them as a result of they had been “too problematic”.

ONE MORE TIP ON TOLERANCES – AS THEY ARE IMPORTANT

They need to be massive sufficient to just accept small variations however sufficiently small that they don’t overlap between sizes.

Here’s what I imply. So, if the width of the sleeve on a t-shirt is 8” on a small, and 9” on a medium, and the tolerance is ½” – that doesn’t make sense. Technically, a small sleeve may go as massive as 8.5” and a medium sleeve may very well be as small as, properly the identical 8.5”. If this occurred, the small and the medium can be the identical measurement, which might be tremendous complicated to clients.

So, make sure that your measurement grading and tolerances are massive sufficient between sizes to keep away from match confusion.

PUTTING ALL THE INFO TOGETHER IN A PROFESSIONAL DOCUMENT

Now that you just’ve acquired your POMs and a listing of what you have to embody in your garment spec sheet, it’s time to place it collectively.

You may create your garment spec sheet as a spreadsheet (learn, free).

Or use tech pack growing software program like Techpacker.

Techpacker makes creating your entire tech pack tremendous simple. They even provide you with templates that can let you know what factors of measure you need to embody for a garment and a few customary business measurements.

It’s regular to make errors, so think about getting a second pair of eyes to evaluation it, simply in case!

While you’re pleased with it, save your garment spec sheet as a PDF and ship it to your manufacturing facility.

Bear in mind, your garment spec sheet is a dwelling doc. You’re allowed to make amendments if samples don’t work out. Simply date each edit you make so you possibly can preserve monitor!

ADDITIONAL GARMENT SPEC SHEET TIPS

Listed below are a couple of extra issues it is best to know!

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Hold your garment spec sheet easy and simple to know. Much less is extra right here.

Suppose like an architect, not an inside designer. This isn’t a artistic doc; it’s a blueprint so it must be clear.

LEAVE ZERO ROOM FOR ASSUMPTIONS

By no means assume the producer understands your imaginative and prescient. Ensure you embody each element that helps talk your design idea.

That’s the reason I urged having a second set of eyes on the doc – in case your reader is confused, your manufacturing facility may be too.

WORK SMARTER

the phrase ‘work smarter, not tougher?’ – I say it on a regular basis. The identical applies to your garment spec sheets!

Reuse your garment spec sheets.

This t-shirt instance may develop into a v-neck t-shirt or perhaps a long-sleeved shirt. No have to reinvent the wheel. Use what you might have already.

REMEMBER TO USE IT THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE GARMENT LIFECYCLE

As soon as your first match pattern has been developed, be sure you scrutinize them in opposition to your garment spec sheet.

Test each element and measurement specification to make sure it’s a mirrored image of what you had written down.

It’s regular on your imaginative and prescient to not be excellent the primary time.

If this occurs, you possibly can edit your garment spec sheet, have the manufacturing facility make a brand new pattern, after which repeat the method till you might have the right garment.

Your ultimate permitted spec sheet will develop into your high quality management software which can then assist you monitor discrepancies in bulk manufacturing.